The practicality for this invention is based on the following facts. Conventional methods for removing gelcoat and/or fiberglass laminate off of boat bottoms or hulls (i.e. electrical sanders and sandblasting) are extremely time consuming, do not leave a duplicate flush surface on the hull or bottom of a boat, and are environmentally hazardous.
Because the teeth on the cutterhead are flushed and cooled continuously with water, acting as chip breakers, a non electrical power unit was developed because of the risk of electric shock.
Conventional type solid blade planers can not follow the contour of the hull of a boat. The blades heat up very quickly and the solid blades have trouble breaking the surface of gelcoat and fiberglass (staggered tooth planer cutterhead breaks surface much more easily).
Somewhat similar apparatuses to the staggered tooth planer cutterhead and rollerguides used in the Hand Held Planer Unit of this invention exist in the wood working/furniture making industry (i.e. router bits, thickness planers, hand held planers and flush trim router bits).